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Show BEYOND POWER OF MAN. THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE BEmarly ROBERTS BINEHART ttJJUSmATtONd BY urrmiKT not mm eWc r SYNOPSIS. Miss Innes, spinster and of guardian Gertrude and Halsej, established summer at nuheadquarters Amidst merous difficultiesBunnyside. the sertarite deserted. As Miss Innes lorkod up tar the night, she was startled by a dark figure on the veranda. She passed a rernble night, Which was tilled wtLh unseemly noises. In the morning Miss Imneb found a strange link eulf button m a clothes Gertrude and Hulsey arrived hamper. with Jack Bailey. The house was awak-ine- d by a revolver shot A strange man was found shot to death In the hall. It proved to be the body of Arnold Armstrong. whose banker father owned the country house. Miss Innes found Halsey's revolver on the lawn. He and Jack Bailey had disappeared. CHAPTER IV. Cortttnued. Especially what? Especially since Jack Bailey and Arnold Armstrong were notoriously bad friends. It was Bailey who got Arnold into trouble last spring something about the bank. And then, too Go on, I said. If there is anything more, I ought to know. "Theres nothing more, he said Theres just one thing we evasively. may bank on, ivfiss Innes. Any court in the country will acquit a man who kills an intruder in his house at night. If Halsey Why, you dont think Halsey did It! I exclaimed. There was a queer feeling of physical nausea coining over me. No, no, not at all, he said with forced cheerfulness. Come, Miss Innes, youre a ghost of yourself, and I am going to help you upstairs and call your maid. This has been too much for you. About six oclock Gertrude came In. She was fully dressed, and I sat up nervously. What a she said. Poor Aunty! She shocking night you have had! came over and sat down on the bed, and I saw she looked very tired and worn. Is there anything new? I asked anxiously. Nothing. The car is gone, but WarWarner ner he is the chauffeur is at the lodge and knows nothing about it. Well, I said, If I ever get my hands on Halsey Innes I shall not let go until I have told him a few things. When we get this cleared up, I am going back to the city to be quiet. One more night like the last two will end me. The peace of the 'Country fiddlesticks! Whereupon I told Gertrude of the noises the night before, and the figure on the veranda In the east wing. As an afterthought I brought out the . pearl I have no doubt now, I said, that it was Arnold Armstrong the night before last, too. He had a key, no doubt, but why he should steal into bis fathers house I cannot imagine. He could- - have come with my permission easily enough. Anyhow, whoever It was that night left this little souvenir. Gertrude took one look at the cufflink and went as white as the pearls In it; she clutched at the foot of the 'bed and stood staring. As for me, I was quite as astonished as she was. she Where did you find it? asked finally, with a desperate effort at calm. And while I told her she stood looking out of the window with a look I could not fathom on her face. It was a relief when Mrs. Watson tapped at the door and brought me some tea and toast. The cook W'as in bed, completely demoralized, she reported, and Liddy, brave with the daylight, was looking for footprints around the house. Mrs. Watson herself was around a wreck; she was the lips, and she had one hand tied up. ShO said she had fallen downstairs In. her excitement. It was natural, of course, that the thing would shock her, having been the Armstrongs housekeeper for several years and knowing Mr. Arnold well. Geitrvtde had slipped out during my talk with Mrs. Watson, and I dressed The billiard and went downstairs and card rooms were locked until the coroner and the detectives got there, and the men from the club had gone back for more conventional clothing. I could hear Thomas in the pantry alternately wailing for Mr. Arnold, as he called him, and citing the tokens that had precursed the murder. The house seemed to choke me, and, slipping a shawl arotind me, I went out on the drive. At the corner by the east wing I met Liddy. Her skirts were draggled with dew to her knees and her hair was still in crimps. Go right in and change your cloihes, I said sharply. "Youre a sight, and at your age!" She had a golf stick in her hand, and she said she had found it on the lawn. There was nothing unusual about It, but it occurred to me that a golf stick with a metal end might have been the object that had scratched the stairs near the cardroom. I took it from her, and sent her up for dry garments. Her daylight courage and and her shuddering delight in the mystery, imileft tated me beyond words. After her I made a circuit of the building. Nothing seemed to be disturbed; the house looked as calm and peaceful In 'he morning sun as it had the day I had been coerced into taking it. There was nothing to show that inside had been mystery and violence and sudden death. In one of the tulip beds back of the house an early blackbird was pecking viciously at something that glittered in the light. I picked my way gingerly over through the dew and stooped down; almost buried in the soft ground was a revolver! I scraped the earth off it with the tip of my shoe, and, picking it up, slipped it into my pocket. Not until I had got into my bedroom and double-lockethe door did I venture to take it out and examine it. One look was all I needed. It was Halseys revolver. I had unpacked it the day before and put it on his shaving stand, and there could be no mistake. His name was on a small silver plate on the handle. i seemed to see a network closing around my boy, innocent as I knew he was. The revolver lam afraid of them, hut anxiety gave me courage to look through the barrel the revolver had still two bullets in It. I could only breathe a prayer of thankfulness that I had found the revolver before any sharp-eyedetective had come around. I decided to keep what clues I had, the cuff-linthegolf stick and the revolver, in a secure place until I could see some reason for displaying them. The cuff-linhad been dropped into a little filigree box on my toilet table. I opened the box and felt around for it. The box was empty the cufflink had disappeared! d d k CHAPTER V. Gertrudes Engagement. At ten oclock the Casanova hack brought up three men. They Introduced themselves as the coroner of the county and two detectives from his father's house two nights in succession, stealing in like a thief, when he needed only to ask entrance to be admitted. The coroner was a very silent man; he took some notes after this, but he seemed anxious to make the next train back to town. He set the inquest for the following Saturday, gave Mr. Jamieson, the younger of the two detectives, and the more intelligent looking, a few instructions, and, after gravely shaking hands with me and regretting the unfortunate affair, took his departure, accompanied by the other detective. 1 was just beginning to breathe freely when Mr. Jamieson, who had been standing by the window, came over to me. "The family consists of yourself alone, Miss Innes? My niece is here, I said. "There is no one but yourself and your niece? I had to moisten My nephew. my lips. Oh, a nephew. I should like to see him, if he is here. He is not here just now, I said as I expect him quietly as I could. at any time. He was here yesterday evening, I believe? No yes. "Didnt he have a guest with him? Another man? He brought a friend with him to stay over Sunday, a Mr. Bailey. Mr. John Bailey, the cashier of the Traders bank, I believe. And I knew that some one at the Greenwood club had told. "When did they leave? Very early I dont know at just what time. Mr. Jamieson turned suddenly and looked at me. blue-whit- e 1 One Look Was All the city. The coroner led the way at once to the locked wing, and with the aid of one of the detectives examined the rooms and the body. The other detective, after a short scrutiny of the dead man, busied himself with the outside of the house. It was only after they had got a fair idea of things as they were that they sent for ne. I received them in the living room, and I had made up my mind exactly what to tell. I had taken the house for the summer, I said, while the Armstrongs were in California. In spite of a rumor among the servants about strange noises I cited Thomas nothing had occurred the first two nights. Ou the third night I believed that some one had been in the house; 1 had heard a crashing sound, but being alone with one maid had not inThe house had been vestigated. locked in the morning and apparently undisturbed. Then, as clearly as I could, I related how, the night before, a shot had roused us; that my niece and I had investigated and found a body; that I did not know who the murdered man was until Mr. Jarvis from the club informed me,, and that I knew of no reason why Mr. Arnold Armstrong should steal into his father's house at night. I should have been glad to allow him entree there at any time. Have you reason to believe, Miss Innes, the coroner asked, that any member of your household, imagining Mr. Armstrong was a hurgalr, shot him in I have no reason for thinking so," I said quietly. Your theory Is that Mr. Armstrong wes followed "here by some enemy and shot as he entered the house? "I don't think I have a theory,! I said. The thing that has puzzled me ia why Mr. Armstrong should enter ? I Needed." BACKACHE will her stop suddenly, as if she had been striuk He docs not, she said in a tone that was not her own. Mr. Bailey and my brother know nothing of this. The murder was committed at three. They loft the house at a quarter before three. "How do you know that? Mr. Jamieson asked oddly. Do you know at what time tl ey left?" "I do." Gertrude answered firmly. At a quarter before three my brother and Mr. Bailey left the house, by the main entrance. I was there." ''Gertrude, I said excitedly, you are dreaming! Why, at a quarter to three "At half-pas- t Listen, she said. two the downstairs telephone rang. I had not gone to sleep, and I heard it. Then I heard Halsey answer Jt, and in a few minutes he came upstairs and knocked at my door. We we talked for a minute, then I put on my dressing gown and slippers, and went downstairs with him. Mr. Bailey was In the billiard room. We we all talked together for perhaps ten minutes. Then it was decided that that they should both go away Cant you be more explicit? Mr. Jamieson asked. Why did they go away? I am only telling you what happened, not why it happened, she said evenly. Halsey went,, for the car, and instead of bringing it to the house and rousing people, he went by the lower road from the stable. Mr. Bailey was to meet him at the foot of the lawn. Mr. Bailey left Which way? Mr. Jamieson asked sharply. He left By the main entrance. It was a quarter to three. I know exactly. The clock In the hall Is stopped. Hiss Innes, said Jamieson. Nothing seemed to escape him. He looked at his watch, she replied, and I could ee Mr. Jamieson's eyes snap, as if he bad made a dls As for myself, during the covery. whole recital I had been plunged into the deepest amazement. "Will you pardon me for a personal The detective was a question? youngish man, and I thought he was What are somewhat embarrassed. your your relations with Mr. Bailey? Gertrude hesitated. Then she came over and put her hand lovingly in mine. cuff-link- YOU am engaged to marry him, she said simply. I had grown so accustomed to surprises that I could only gasp again, and as for Gertrude, the hand that lay In mine was burning with fever. Mr. Jamieson And after that, went on, "you went directly to bed? Gertrude hesitated. I I am not No, she said flnally. nervous, and after I had extinguished the light, I remembered something I had left in the billiard room, and I felt my way back there through the darkness. Will you tell me what It was you had forgotten? I cannot tell you," she said slowly. I I did not leave the billiard room at once The detective's tone was Why? This is very important, imperative. Miss Innes. I was crying, Gertrude said in a low tone. When the French clock in the drawing room struck three I got up and then I heard a step on the east porch, just outside the cardroom. Some one with a key was working with the latch, and I thought, of course, of Halsey. When we took the house he called that his entrance, and he had carried a key for it ever since. The door opened and I was about to ask what he had forgotten, when there was a flash and a report. Some heavy body dropped, and, half crazed with terror and shock, I ran through the drawing room and got upstairs I scarcely remember how." She dropped into a chair, and I thought Mr. Jamieson must have finished. But he was not through. "You certainly clear your brother and Mr. Bailey admirably, he said. The testimony is invaluable, especially In view of the fact that your brother and Mr. Armstrong had, I believe, quarreled rather seriously some itme Please try to be more explicit, he You say your nephew and Mr. said. Bailey were in the house last night, and yet you and your niece, with some women servants, found the body. Where was jour nephew? I was entirely desperate by that time. I do not know, I cried, hut be sure of this: Halsey knows nothing of this thing, and no amount of circumstantial evidence can make an innocent man guilty. "Sit down," he said, pushing forward a chair. There are some things 1 have to tell you, and, in return, please tell me all you know. Believe me, things always come out. In the first place, Mr Armstrong was shot from above The bullet was fired at close range, entered below the shoulder and came out, after passing ago. Nonsense, 1 broke in. "Things are through the hedrt, well down the back. In other words, I believe the bad enough, Mr. Jamieson, without inwhere it doesnt murderer stood on the stairs and fired venting had feeling 1 don't think Halsey down. In the second place, I found exist. Gertrude, man. did on the edge of the billiard table a knew the the murdered charred cigar which had burned itself he? But Mr. Jamieson was sure of his partly out, and a cigarette which had consumed itself to the cork tip. Neith- ground. (TO BE CONTINUED) er one had been more than lighted, then put down and forgotten. Have A New Cloth. you any idea what it was that made A new cloth is being made in Calyour nephew and Mr. Bailey leave cutta, India, which is manufactured their cigars and their game, take out on scientific principles to conform to the automobile without calling the nature's plan of warding off the sun's chauffeur, and all that at let me see rays, as exemplified in the color of the certainly before three o'clock in the skin and the pigments under the skin. morning? It ia the belief of physicians that, one I don't know," I said, "but depend of the chief reasons for thr many on it, Mr. Jamieson, Halsey "will be deaths recorded in hot weal her is 'back himself to explain everything. that of Improper clothing. The de1 sincerely hope so, he said. Miss signers of what we must wear to be r Innes, has it occurred to you that Mr. the elect may ordain a color or texBailey might know something of ture thoroughly unsulted to the pre tills ? 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